Stopping Carvedilol (Coreg): When will the effects wear off?

Is it your heart or is stress no salt for you good luck.I use tranqilers<br />
for stress but when I did yoga I was much more relaxed?<br />

Thanks, Deena. I´ve been resting at home for a few days and reading a lot about diet, especially the DASH diet. I´m feeling inspired to make some changes. Yoga helps immensely with the elevated stress, too.

Hey @teatime and everyone else on this thread. Because there were so many questions raised in this discussion about prescribing carvedilol and about weaning of the medication, I thought I'd involved one of our Mayo Clinic pharmacists. Here what she wrote:

"While carvedilol can be a very good medication for hypertension, it does have rare (0.1 to 1% of patients experiencing) side effects of abnormal thinking, aggravated depression, emotional instability, nervousness, and terrifying dreams. Unfortunately it sounds like you (@teatime) may be part of this subset of patients.

Carvedilol has a shorter half life than some of the other beta blockers which tends to make weaning off of it a little more difficult as the withdrawal side effects are more pronounced. A typical taper off of carvedilol would include taking the usual dose once a day for one week, then taking every other day for one week, then stopping. Some people will wean down more slowly or extend the taper if they are experiencing the withdrawal side effects. A longer form of the taper could be to take the usual dose daily for a week, then a half dose daily for a week, then a half dose every other day for a week, then stop.

The body’s adrenergic receptors are upregulated in response to a person taking a beta blocker, which is why it is important to taper off of the medication and allow those receptors time to adjust to not having that beta blocker circulating in the body. After stopping the medication it can take about a week or more for those receptors to go back to normal, so it is not uncommon to continue to notice some side effects even after stopping the medication completely.

For most people, the side effects from the medication or from weaning off the medication are tolerable, but the symptoms you describe seem severe. It is good that you are continuing to follow up with your health care team during this process so they can monitor your heart and blood pressure closely."

I hope this helps.

Thanks so much @colleenyoung ! This seems to match my experience. I really appreciate this feedback! Please thank the pharmacist from me for his/her thoughtful response.

It is me again! It has been ten days off the Carvedilol. while I don't feel 100%, I am doing a lot better- maybe 85%. Weaning off of this drug was difficult. I am sleeping a lot better. My cardiologist prescribed me a mild anti anxiety pill to get over the first few nights (only half a dose for five nights) and that improved sleep quality and got me over the hump of unease at nighttime. My resting pulse is back up to about 60-62 which is more me (it was 50-52 while on Carvedilol and even lower at night). I felt that took the longest to stabilize. The night poundings have stopped. I have actually gone for two (albeit short) runs this week and have been doing a bit of yoga again. We are following up with a 24 hour halter test (I am doing that today) and an EKG (normal). I am monitoring my BP, which is pretty good. The cardiologist had originally prescribed Cozaar but is now open to trying a few months of lifestyle and diet changes and keeping a BP log- as long as I don't spike again (I had to buy a cuff for home use). I am quite anxious to try another medication at this moment after this experience. I would like to give it a real chance to see if I can keep my BP down more naturally while I am still in my 40s.

Best of luck! Keep us posted!!!

@teatime and @neeci, thanks for your very helpful information on your experiences with Carvedilol. I'm just sticking my nose into this thread to firm up a link with you for the future, since I began taking Carvedilol today -- 6.25mg twice daily with food. My pulse rate dropped quickly from a range of 72-85 to 48- 62, which seems low but was normal for me until a-fib was diagnosed two years ago. Given my a-fib, that may be too slow, but so far no pounding heart beats, and my BP averaged 135/76 three hours ago -- best I have seen in months.

My hypertension physician is not a cardiologist, but a nephrologist. She called out the Carvedilol after a number of other meds failed to manage my BP and after consulting with my cardiologist. She is an exceptional genius in these matters, so for me and my condition, I'd sell the farm to keep her on my case. She gave me a full briefing on Carvedilol's side effects and the difficulty of tapering off if necessary, rather than abruptly cutting off its use. In addition, she believes that it works differently from most other beta blockers (like Atenolol, which I was taking before), involving the kidneys in the metabolic processes, which helps to account for its apparent "power."

Since you're not into Carvedilol any more, I'll understand if you simply note this without comment, but be sure that I'll welcome any insights or experiential information you care to share. And I will be tracking you in this group.

Martin

Has anybody had a problem getting off of it

Hi @barnes123, Welcome to Connect. I moved your message to the Heart & Blood Health group so you can connect with other members like @teatime @neeci and @predictable who are talking about getting off Coreg. Click View & Reply to see the whole discussion.

Barnes - why are you currently taking Coreg? Have you started coming off it?

. Yes I was having problems with. Vertigo my heart dr wanted to stop it and see if the dizziness would go away. I have been off of it for 3 days now and Feel weak and my body hurts and I have cramps in my hands and feet are tingling my head feels crazy.